Well, it's been a while since I've been gaffing, so I thought I'm come on and chit chat a bit with folks. If ya'll have any queries about what Hudson is up to lately, or anything else for that matter, I'm here to discuss!

I should probably also make clear, I can't spill the beans on EVERYTHING. But I can at least throw a few beans on your face.

Yes. It's coming. Details are still being finalized. It will be different than Bomberman Live. But it's still the classic Bomberman, if you catch my drift. It's probably one of the few classic games we are bring out on Wii Ware, but digital download is really where Bomberman shines.

What's next for XBLA since Omega 5 and Bomberman Live has been released?

will BONK make a new appearance? Adventure Island?

Here's one way to address this question. If you were to list out your favorite top 5 classic Hudson games, and pound us like you regularly do, and if we get the hint, then you can expect to see those games come back to life in some shape or form, including on XBLA.

For XBLA specifically, we already did a classic game (Bomberman), a new IP (Omega Five). The next one is a licensed game. I'm sure more is coming on that.

That's kind of sad, I think, but understandable I guess. Is there anything you can confirm like an ETA or online? Either way I'll be there for it :)

It's not too sad, because what that means is we are working on all new concepts and new game ideas! Wii Ware allows us to do some more interesting smaller game concepts that we normally couldn't do, so it's fun to experiment.

It's not too sad, because what that means is we are working on all new concepts and new game ideas! Wii Ware allows us to do some more interesting smaller game concepts that we normally couldn't do, so it's fun to experiment.

I tell you what, if you really want to dig into some good dirt on Bonk, then you'll have to listen in on some recent podcasts I did. I go into detail on Bonk about some interesting things happening behind the scenes. It's really quite fascinating.

With that, I'll let you treasure hunt!

As for that PS2 Bonk, yeah that was a pretty cool game. We were looking at bring some of those remakes on PS2 to the US, though it's coming close to the end of that console's lifecycle, so no final decision has been made. But we have been evaluating how to do it. Quite frankly, some of those games require some additional coding to localize, which apparently isn't so straight forward.

Wondering if Super Star Soldier R is just a score based game, or is that just an extra like the old games?

Super Star Soldier R for Wii Ware is a unique game. It's a lot like Pacman Championship edition, in that it's a time based attack mode, where you prove you can get the highest score.

The whole concept originated many years ago on the Hudson Caravan. A traveling showcase Hudson did around Japan where hundreds of thousands of people would come out, meet celebrities, play games, and compete (Bomberman, Star Soldier, etc). One of the original Star Soldier games featured a 5 minute mode, specially designed for competition. And we'd used that to prove who was the best out there. That mode is designed to be very complex, and there are many ways to rake up combo points, so trying to master it requires some testing out of different attack patterns.

Anyways, it was hugely popular in Japan, so this updated Wii Ware version was originally planned just for that market. We're evaluating bring out for the US, since most people have never heard of Star Soldier, or the 5 minute mode or the Hudson Caravan.

Wow. Good memory. Yes at one point we were working an a 360 version of Dungeon Explorer. However, the game has been shelved because quite frankly the quality wasn't there. It just didn't look next gen enough.

Doesn't mean it won't ever see the light of day again, but it's not actively in queue. Could potentially migrate to XBLA one day though. It would make a killer XBLA game, wouldn't it?

Let me explain. The NES, SNES, GENESIS and NEO-GEO emulators can display the game in the original resolution with the scanlines everything. Only the TG-16 emulator does not give us the real original resolution. It looks like it doubles the graphic lines to get rid of the scanlines. This cause the overall look of the game to be blurry. Problem is, the idea behind the VC is primarily to emulate as perfectly as possible and i can't understand why this resolution detail has been overlooked. Every single other dev that did an emulator could give you the option to play in the original resolution except you guys.
Now, i'm a bit VC user and i LOVE playing the game in their more accurate form as possible. I don't want to play blurred Hudson games. Could you PLEASE, PLEASE (i meant it), raise this issue with the people concerned?

Will the Tetris release on Wii Ware have region-locked online play, or will we be playing matches worldwide? On that same token, is this a title we can expect during the launch of Wii Ware, or has that not yet been determined?

Wow. Good memory. Yes at one point we were working an a 360 version of Dungeon Explorer. However, the game has been shelved because quite frankly the quality wasn't there. It just didn't look next gen enough.

Doesn't mean it won't ever see the light of day again, but it's not actively in queue. Could potentially migrate to XBLA one day though. It would make a killer XBLA game, wouldn't it?

Man, those portable versions look really bad. Ditch the 3D sprites and just make hi res top down gauntlet style Dungeon Explorer.

Super Star Soldier R for Wii Ware is a unique game. It's a lot like Pacman Championship edition, in that it's a time based attack mode, where you prove you can get the highest score.

Thanks for that, I love score based shooters so I'm definitely in, nice price as well. I really hope you guys have seen enough success with the VC releases to ensure that it gets released in the rest of the world. Be a damn shame if it was a JPN release only.

No, there's currently no plans to bring Bomberman Story to the US. When we took a look at Bomberman Land and Bomberman Story, it became clear the Bomberman Land franchise was much more fun, and fit better with US tastes, so we brought that one over. There's just so much more content in that series, not to mention having the full classic battle mode built in to boot.

Anyways, it was hugely popular in Japan, so this updated Wii Ware version was originally planned just for that market. We're evaluating bring out for the US, since most people have never heard of Star Soldier, or the 5 minute mode or the Hudson Caravan.

Wait, so you're not sure whether or not Star Soldier R will make it out to other countries? Are people not doing what the XBLA does and release it for every (or almost every) possible country in the world?

Why the hell not? It's not like anyone ever heard of "OMEGA 5" since it wasn't a franchise - people at least know Star Soldier since the Virtual Console is filled with the games.

Wait, so you're not sure whether or not Star Soldier R will make it out to other countries? Are people not doing what the XBLA does and release it for every (or almost every) possible country in the world?

Why the hell not? It's not like anyone ever heard of "OMEGA 5" since it wasn't a franchise - people at least know Star Soldier since the Virtual Console is filled with the games.

It's not that simple. Quite frankly, not every game on XBLA gets released worldwide. Same with VC, and Wii Ware. Each territory has their own launch process, and it's not just a simple turn the switch on. Other times there are localization issues.

I can't speak for all publishers, but at least for Hudson we try to at least see if there's market interest first. People always say that they wish we'd just release every one of our classic games on every platform all the time, but you'll often see that only certain games sell well in certain territories.

I remember a conversation with a friend of mine regarding the Worms franchise, and he just didn't understand why that game wouldn't sell on console in the US like it would in Europe, where it's a mega hit. It's a great game, and people who play it in the US love it, but end of the day, not every game fits local tastes.

PSN - Well one thing seems certain, there's more PS3 owners out there than there were last year:) Looks like Sony is making a nice little comeback.

Yes, eventually we'll do something for PSN. Hudson and Nintendo have a very close partnership, so we typically will lead with their platform first. We decided to move into the XBLA space because Microsoft really did a great job building a digital download service that is robust, and at the time Sony simply hadn't gotten their service off the ground yet. Now that it's doing much better, and looking more impressive each day, we are looking at bringing some franchises over.